Ossa Thraikia
by Synesthete
Summary: Kara meets two Twos on New Caprica.
1. the meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Just playing around with it. Please don't sue.  
I ran out of muse to fill in the blanks on my ST:VOY J/C 'fic, but this plot bunny came to me and I couldn't help but write it down. I hope you enjoy.

Pairings: Eventually a Two ("Leoben")/Kara and, implied where they appear, Adama/Roslin, Galen/Cally, Lee/Dualla, and whoever else.

Differences: Billy Keikeya never died. Lee and Starbuck were/are only close in a sibling-type relationship way. Adama and Roslin were married on New Caprica before the invastion. Lee never left the service and never had a falling out with his dad. Starbuck had never married Anders, just had "dated" him. Neither Galen Tyrol nor Samuel Anders are cylons.

Raise your hand if you like that universe better! I know I do. :) And if anyone wants to write something in that general universe, please do - I would love love love to read it!

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1. the meetings

"Starbuck." She recognized the voice, but couldn't right away remember where from. She turned around to find a blue-eyed, dishwater-blonde-haired, rough looking skinjob. The last time she saw him he'd been tossed out of an airlock.

"Hi!", she greeted with a bright smile, obviously disingenuous. "What was your name again?" She got up, sat her plate of not so edible food down on the chair, and walked over to him with an intimidating presence. "Oh right, God. Hi God. So nice to see you around." She wiped her mouth with her fingers forcefully and crossed her arms, bouncing side to side with disturbed energy a little as she did so. "Track me down just to get your shit ruined again?"

He merely countered with an intrusive stare and wide, creepy, unsettling smile before he had his fill of looking at her and strolled away.

She was left standing there, lips parted unhappily. She was just begging him for a reason to smash his face in. It was only three days since the invasion and she couldn't find a release for her outrage. 'How did I get stuck here!' She had been stupid enough to come and visit Anders again that day. Just a distraction from the tedium of the nearly vacated battlestars. Crap timiing on her part. She shook her head. 'What the frak did it want.', she couldn't help but wonder.

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"Kara Thrace?"

'Gods damn it.' She wouldn't forget the voice now. "Go frak yourself." she called over her shoulder as she continued walking, and he kept up beside her, but over an arm's length distance away.

He raised his eyebrows, then let out a barely audible "ah". "If you're referring to another of my model, the one you've met before... well, I get your reaction. He doesn't have his head screwed on straight."

"How convenient! I have a screwdriver right over here I can lend you." She popped her tongue over a tooth behind her upper lip.

The Two frowned. "He found out you were here. He must have talked to you the other day."

She was having a hard time containing herself. "So you're playing good cop/bad cop by yourself or else there're more of you blonde bitches obsessed with me. Either way, frak off." She said as she turned away and started toward a nearby tent.

"He probably is, but I wouldn't call what I am obsessed. Technically speaking." He didn't mean to start trailing off and lose her. "I... Do you have visions, Kara?"

That got her attention, and she kicked herself for doing such a poor job of concealing that it did. She had no interest in talking about her visions, least of all to a toaster. She ducked into the tent, and he did not follow.


	2. the mishap

2. the mishap

"It's so good to see you again, Starbuck."

She had seen him every day now since day one. Maybe ignoring him would make him go away faster.

"This hasn't been fun for you. But things will get better. I want to help you. You won't have to be troubled any longer. You will see what God has planned for you."

She kept on walking.

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It was twilight, and she found herself alone, sitting on a big gray rock down by the creek, wishing she had a bottle of booze handy to drink this crap away. She would almost rather be on Caprica right now. It was too cold and too quiet on this godsforsaken planet. 'Getting away from it all' was all too easy. Being away from everyone else, it was like you didn't exist here. She missed the calming grunts and chirps of iGalactica/i.

She stood up reflexively when she heard pebbles falling down the bank behind her. It was him, slowly making his way down to her. 'Son of Zeus, now what.'

"I apologize for bothering you again."

"You're right - you do have a screw loose." She stood her ground.

He made it down, ending up close to her, but not too close. "I just wanted to ask you about your visions. Find out if they're the same as mine. Or if there is more to it."

"Toasters don't dream."

He was patient through her hostility. "Some do. But only a couple of us that I know of have visions."

"No kidding, because from the way you've been stalking me, you'd think you really did have fanstasies." She turned away from him and started back, past a large overhanging tree, further upstream toward camp.

"I'm not that person, Kara."

She turned around. "You're NOT. A. PERSON." As if pointing that out again would suddenly make the world of difference to him. "You're a delusional frakking toaster."

He put his hands out in front of him in a calming position. "Kara, please tell me what you've seen. Have you seen me in a vision before? Have you seen..."

She turned from him to continue upstream, and he followed close by. "Why do you care?"

"Hold still." He knew it was a stupid thing to say the moment it left his lips, when he had already lifted a hand up to her. What she saw out of the corner of her eye was his hand fairly briskly heading toward the side of her head. She turned on him, stabbing him quickly in the abdomen with a knife she'd been keeping in her belt, and forcefully dragged and somewhat sawed it fully outwards to slice his gut open. His face showed nothing but shock. A second later, it was almost as if he had to remember to collapse. He half layed, half sat doubled over on the bank, clutching his side with a moan as blood pooled beneath him and mixed with the sand. The pain was worse than any he ever remembered feeling.

"I'm sorry." It was spoken by the Two. He gasped in another breath and added, strained yet calm, "I didn't mean to frighten you." His gaze turned downward, noting the significant blood loss was going to make his death quick, at least.

Kara stared at him, eyes narrowed and lips sealed tightly, still clutching the knife, when a small buzzing sound by her ear caught her attention. She brushed her hair back with her left hand. "AAH. FRAK." She jerked her hand away to find a black insect along with a puncture mark on her middle finger. She flicked her hand, and the insect fell off, managing to fly away before it hit the ground. The mark on her finger started to turn color and swell, and it continued to hurt like hell. "Dammit." She sucked and chewed on it to see if that would help.

Her attention returned to him when he gurgled a cough. She looked back at him to see his eyes unfocus and his hand drift from the gaping wound which had all but stopped pouring out blood. "Never died like this before." he stuttered casually before slumping over, his arm falling into the water and his head hitting the mud at the edge.

She stood there for a minute, then left. She would not feel sorry for a machine.


	3. the connection

3. the connection

'Damned blister beetle. As if the weather here isn't shitty enough, Pan had to grace us with those damned things.' They beat the sting of a bee any day. She examined her finger as she walked, but the swelling and discoloration hadn't subsided all that much, considering it'd been two days since. As she lifted the flap to her and Anders' tent, she saw a Two standing right there in the middle. "Get the frak out."

"I will. But I didn't really care to be seen around so I ducked in to wait for you. I came to warn you - he plans to kidnap you soon." He paused, then added, "And yes, he is obsessed."

She wasn't convinced he was the less creepier of the two copies. He could have even been the fifth one who'd been stalking her. "And assuming you aren't here to bullshit, why are you telling me this?"

"I just wanted you to know..." he cocked his head introspectively. "I didn't have a vision about this, so maybe it's not important? I'm not sure. But I wanted you to be aware."

Inwardly she rolled her eyes at the mention of the stupid visions. "Okay, so why bother telling me?", she overacted and overenunciated as if she were speaking to a retarded child. "Why not stop him from trying?"

He paced around a few steps. "It's not that easy. Myself, two Twos, and a couple of others have made our objections known, but he insists doing so will somehow fulfill God's will. The rest have just shrugged and let him to do whatever, thinking that at best he is right and at worst it couldn't hurt no matter what happens to you. Not many of them are convinced you have a future purpose..." He got himself back on track. "But if I fight him on this, them on this, they will all tend to keep a closer eye on me from now on. And like I said, I didn't have a vision for this, so I don't think it is worth drawing a spotlight. At least now." He thought for a moment. "I realize you have almost no concept of how cylon politics operates, but from what I've heard, it doesn't seem to be all that different from human politics. I hope you can understand my reasoning, anyway."

A minute passed and she said nothing, merely standing there, hands on hips and eyes on him. He decided that, from her, it was meant to be a courteous exit request, and having said essentially what he came to say, he started on the way out. "Wait." He came to a stop after she spoke. "When you asked me before, yeah, I do remember you.", she finally admitted. As much as she hated it, the visions had been on her mind since he first brought them up. She looked him in the eyes before almost looking past him, recreating the vision in her mind's eye in front of her. "Almost four years ago..."

_"Momma, something's about to happen! You know that thing you were trying to prepare me for? I don't know if I can do it."_

_"Oh yes you can. You can.", comforted her mother._

_"How can you be sure?"_

_"You're my daughter.", she answered matter-of-factly._

"And I saw you standing there, beside my mother..."

"And I had told you", the tangible Two said, gently holding her upper arm, "_"I'll be here to help you."_" Her mind came back to the present, and she found herself not a foot away from him, gazing into the clear blue of his eyes. He was so real to her now. Little did she know he was feeling the same way. He was on edge, but in a thrilled way. "I'll be here. But you need to take care until."

She blinked, coming out of it. "Until what?"

Deflated a bit, he explained as best he could. "Until something else happens. I don't know yet. What I do know is, then, you'll be free to fulfill your destiny."

Her brow crinkled at his cryptic words. She got the impression not even he had a clue about what he meant.

He dropped his hand from her arm to give her some space. "But one factoid of note, if you should be taken in: It gets more painful each time a cylon 'dies' and gets redownloaded." Her eyebrows raised. "But don't tell him I told you.", he joked.

She grinned to some degree, mostly from malicious thought of rekilling any toaster who had the balls to try to hold her captive. 'A cylon. Right.', she reminded herself. For the last few minutes she had completely forgotten she wasn't talking to just another person, a human. But she filed his information away. When this 'something' happened, she was hopeful that she and the rest of them would be ready and willing to blow away as many toasters as possible, as often as possible, before they got back with the rest of the fleet and left behind this shithole of a rest stop.

"Thank you for telling me. I'll see you again, sometime." And with that he left. She wouldn't see him again for months, but unfortunately for her she would see his face every day until then.


	4. the reunion

4. the reunion

He'd only just left, but back down the stairs he came, she saw, looking for her. 'Does he miss torturing me that much? Yeah, no doubt.' She'd begun having conversations in her head with herself a few months ago as a way to stay sane, to pretend like there really was another human being for her to talk to rather than a creepy, walking, talking refrigerator. Even now, having Kacey with her, Kacey had hardly spoke but a few words, so truth be told she wasn't much help in any way to her in the sanity department.

"Kara, are you okay?"

Although kind of a strange question considering the circumstance, she pretended not to hear, instead sitting on a chair at the table with arms crossed leaning over, taking in the view of the bright outdoors through the windows.

"I saw him leave a few minutes ago. I'm not sure how long he'll be gone though.", he supplied.

'Oh, we're going to play this game now. Funtimes.' "Alrighty.", she replied flippantly.

He paused at the base of the stairs, understanding she had no reason at all to trust he wasn't the one who had been playing mind games with her. "It's me. I understand, but it's me, not him." His hand squeezed the end of the railing. "Remember our last conversation four months ago?", he asked, hoping discussing the subject again would convince her of who he was, or, perhaps more importantly, who he wasn't.

Still at the table, she turned her head to eye him. Even if it wasn't the same Leoben all along, he could have been in on all the conversations too.

"You've had another vision - one of a mandala?" he began, hoping she would add to it.

She stared at him, wondering if she should bother. But how could he haved guessed something that specific? Save for her mother, no one had ever believed her visions were real, let alone ask about them. She went ahead. If nothing else, it would be a way to pass the time, and she would consider it a bonus if, during, he didn't directly come on to her. "Circles.", she gave him, which she was well aware wasn't much.

"Yellow in the middle.", he continued without missing a beat.

She tried to keep her eyes from widening. Almost wishing it could be blind luck on his part, she decided to throw him off. "Then green."

He furrowed his brow and did a half shake of his head, still looking at her. "There is no green. Blue is next." Noticing her nearly gapy look, he curiously asked, "Is it green for you?"

"No.", she said simply. Could she believe him? "Red is next."

"And then the whoosh of fire around to the left."

"Fire..." she repeated out loud, thinking. She had never known what the 'whoosh' as he called it was supposed to be. Maybe that is what it was? After a moment, she wondered, what about "My other vision?"

'Only one...', he mulled. He slowly approached her, not wanting a repeat of the beetle incident in any way. "Have you seen the boy yet?"

"No.", she replied again, not taking her eyes from him.

He had had more visions than her... Of her, the mandala, the burning, the boy, the comet... She wouldn't have visions of seeing herself, then, so that mostly just left today and "The comet?". He would have thought she would be more on edge today if she had envisioned the burning like he had last night.

"What do you know about the comet?"

"Very little - I've only dreamed of it once." He paused and took a last step to her, hoping she believed it was him now, and softly placed his hand on the table by her. She didn't flinch or move away. "Are you okay?" he asked her again, still serious.

"Well, let's see.", she couldn't help but revert to sarcasm. "I've been here, away from everyone I know, for four months. I've 'killed' him five times now. I'm tired of talking to myself when he's gone, and when he's here, he won't keep his mouth shut for five frakking minutes at any given stretch. To sum it all up, he says he won't leave me alone until I tell him I love him and until I frak him." Hearing this, his hand squeezed hers. "So this may well be cylon Hell for a human. But other than that, I'm grand." She did smile at the end, leading him to believe she really was okay, despite what she'd been through since he had last seen her.

"I am sorry.", he shook his head. "I wish I could have done something, but I'm glad you're alright."

Her eyes narrowed. 'Well why the frak didn't he... it... do something? Why hadn't he or it done anything about anything? This... this whole thing is one huge clusterfrak. And he couldn't've done anything?'

He observed her inner turmoil bubbling once again to the surface, but a small figure at the end of the sofa quickly caught his attention, and she followed his gaze to the sleeping toddler.

"Her name is Kacey." She looked back at him and then back at Kacey. "I think, anyway. Leoben showed up here with her two weeks ago and", as she spoke, her lips rounded and opened around her mouth to show her teeth, clearly indicating her repulsion at the idea, "told me she's our daughter."

"Sonofabitch.", he sighed, thinking not only of Kara but of the child who had obviously been taken away from her mother.

That wasn't exactly what she had expected to her, and she arched an eyebrow at him.

He only somewhat explained, knowing time was going to soon be of the essence. "That isn't possible. It doesn't work like that. I don't know whose she is, but she's not yours. He's been frakking with you."

"Sonofabitch.", she hmphed in agreement, arms still crossed, now leaning back in the chair. 'But what's new.'

His thoughts returned to the present. "We need to go."


	5. the escape

5. the escape

His thoughts returned to the present. "We need to go."

"What the hell does that mean? And why now?" She made no move to get up.

"I had a dream last night... a vision. I saw New Caprica burning." He seemed worried. "And this morning, I got a strange feeling from looking around at some of the humans, but I don't think anyone else has noticed. I just know they're planning something. Something's going to happen today, very soon, and I know we need to get out of here."

She leisurely did stand up, but her forehead was creased, as if she still wasn't sure she should believe him. "I didn't sleep well last night. But I didn't have a nightmare."

Face to face, he regarded her with intensity but sincerity. "If you trust me, we need to go. Now, before he gets back."

She matched his eyes. "Fine." It's not as though she hadn't been clawing, once or twice literally, for an opportunity to get the hell out of the apartment.

Speak of her devil - they heard the door click open. The Two dove to conceal himself, and Kara took his lead and acted as if she was just wandering around the living room out of boredom. Leoben strolled down the stairs and around, and she casually turned to see his demented, smiling face. She had come to find it repelling. But she played along, even if he would understand it was an act, because he would gladly play along to encourage her. "I'm glad to see you're so content today..."

The other Two took the opportunity of his twin's distraction to silently come from behind, and karate-chop the left side of Leoben's neck. He immediately dropped to the floor, but the Two wasn't done with him. Before he could wake up, the Two grabbed and held him by the shoulders and slammed the edge of his boot horizontally against his lower spine. The "pop" was painful even to hear, and the Two let him drop to the floor once again. "He'll be here awhile.", referring to the fact that what happened to him would kill him, at least right away, so he wouldn't be downloading any time soon, but that he could hardly get up and leave either.

Kara, once she had seen the Two initially take him down, had rushed over to where Kacey had formerly been sleeping on the sofa and put a hand over her eyes during the exchange to keep her from having to watch. It all happened so fast, though, that it didn't make much of a difference. Kacey, as usual, didn't seem particularly traumatized.

Just then a series of explosions rumbled through the complex. "Couldn't've timed it better if I'd planned it myself.", the Two commented, walking over to Kara and Kacey. "Although I'd love to take the time to cut off his tongue to shut him the frak up for you, we should really get going."

"No complaints here. Kacey, honey," she turned back to the girl, "we have to go." Kacey hopped off the sofa, and Kara made a move to get her.

"I'm stronger; I can carry her. We'll both keep a lookout." Kara took a step back in approval.

"Kacey," he talked to her as he gently hoisted her up to hold her and look at her one-on-one. "You'll need to hold on extra tight, okay?", he regarded her kindly. She nodded. "And you can be really super quiet too and not say a word the whole way while we're going?" She nodded her agreement once again. "Okay then, hold on.", and she did so, wrapping her little arms around his neck as far as they would go.

The Two took off up the stairs with Kacey glued to him, and Kara followed them up close behind. She had to admit, she was surprised at the sudden switch from ruthless warrioer to sweet daddy figure. Either he could very well be both of those things or else he was the best actor on New Caprica, but, well, she'd prefer not to think of that alternative. And besides, her instincts told her otherwise. She made a happy-go-lucky smile at Kacey on their way up for both their behalves, and the little girl returned it without hesitation. 'Maybe we might make it out of here alive after all.', she thought.


	6. the preliminaries

Thanks for the reviews! LOL about the karate chop.

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6. the preliminaries

"SKINJOB!", a voice called out, and the air crackled with weapons being charged. They had made it out the door of the apartment by way of the doorlock's voice recognition from this Two, through the cylon apartment walkways while avoiding a number of scurrying models, and almost down out the complex's main entrance when they ducked mid-stride as the gates were bombed open. As they regained their balance, a rush of marines swarmed through, a small band bearing down on them directly, rifles pointed, one of them shouting that out. The Two turned to try and keep Kacey out of the direct line of fire, but his movement only spooked the human marines more, and causing them to target his head in particular.

"NO! WAIT. They're with me. He's with me." It came out of Kara's mouth as practically all one long word. She had backed up into him. "Lower the arms." Back and forth she eyes pierced her compatriots' with intensity. "LOWER THEM, Gunny.", she addressed Lieutenant Burrell, who she assumed was in charge of this raid of sorts. She hadn't wanted to carry Kacey because she was sure she would frak up somehow, and the last thing she needed to do was to try and accidentally get her killed again. But maybe not carrying her and bringing along this cylon was the wrong idea. But screw it; it was too late now to change the gameplan.

"Are you sure?", Gunny demanded of her.

"YES.", she left little room for more questioning, wanting to get herself and Kacey the hell as far away from that apartment as possible as soon as possible. And Burrell knew he didn't have the time to have coffee and biscuits with her while she explained, so he simply went the easier and more optimistic route, that wasn't under any sort of mind control, suggestion, or Stockholm Syndrome, and waved his men on by to start on scouting out the rest of the compound with the marines who had already rushed by. Kara let out a breath.

"Thanks. Now, where are we going from here?", the Two inquired as he shifted Kacey back to his front where she was easier to carry, assuming she would have at least some idea of a potential colonial evacuation plan.

She thought about it for a split second. "We'll go this way." He kept up, hoping they wouldn't run into too many more 'friendlies' with ammo along the way.

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"Laura!", she called out to a small assembly meters ahead of them, relieved. When not on duty, she had taken to calling the former president by her first name when she married Bill Adama some months earlier. For a number of years she had considered him her father figure, and espeically when she had become involved with Zak she had been taken in by his family. And even from the beginning of their exodus, Laura had become an encouraging, not-nearly-so-overbearing mother figure to her. While Kara had been held captive, she had no idea how anyone was on the outside, so she was seriously relieved to find that at least Roslin was alive and well.

Roslin looked around and saw Kara jogging towards her. "KARA!" Her jaw dropped, astounded to once again see the young woman she had come to regard as her step-daughter. She hadn't been entirely convinced she would ever see her again. Once, near the beginning of the occupation, she had been told by Samuel Anders that a Leoben model had spoken to him, telling him that she was safe. But no one knew whether that had been deception or not, and if so, for what purpose.

Her open-mouthed expression froze, however, when she laid eyes on the person with her. It was no person in her mind. She quickly shooed Maia and Hera off to get to their ship and out of harm's way. "What's going on?", she inquired in a hard, formal tone to match her expression. 'Was this a bad joke? Is it a trap of some kind? Kara, what are you thinking?! Is it even you, or have they made a model of you now?'

"I know, I know.", she let out with some tired breaths from the near-sprinting. "He's okay though."

Roslin's eyes darted among the three of them in disbelief, as if she expected him to suddenly do something supernatural.

"How are you getting out of here?", Kara asked.

She debated whether or not to answer. "There's a ship waiting for me. You and the child ...human?"

Kara nodded.

"...are welcome to come, but" she spoke to Kara as if the Two couldn't hear her just as well "I will not be on the same ship as that thing." She tried made it clear there wouldn't be any negotiating that point. The problem she faced with that statement was, she was no pilot, and that was one thing they didn't have yet for the ride.

The Two stood silently, making a steady eye contact for a moment with Roslin, while Kara considered the few options...

'Take Kacey and leave him here.'

"Give her to me.", Tory instructed the Two, walking up from partway behind Roslin and outstretching her arms.

'Or, take Kacey, then shoot him. So what if he knows my visions. What possible good to anyone is another cylon on _Galactica_?'

"NO.", Kacey piped up to everyone's amazement, which halted Tory, who raised an eyebrow at Roslin. Kacey had never really spoken before, and Kara hadn't even been certain she could. But what she spoke was very clear as she held on to the Two tighter and buried her head in his shirt.

'So much for that idea. Unless we shot him first. But I don't think she needs to be traumatized any more than she has been already.'

Ah hell. "You want to stay here or no?"

"It's not where I'm supposed to be." He phrased it in a way that would come across the least creepy to her.

"Fine." She sighed and looked back to Roslin. "We'll find another way then." She turned and started off, not sure where she was headed, but leaving anyway, the Two following. 'This is stupid.' She couldn't help but feeling she owed him at least something for helping her out of there. Even if her inner dialogue kept reminding her 'he' was an 'it' and that she should give a frak.

Roslin was also torn, but it wasn't because she didn't have a pilot handy. She knew that if Kara was indeed alive and well at present, that if she didn't let her on her ship and anything should happen to her before they got back to _Galactica_, Bill would find it more than a little difficult to forgive her. Maybe he wouldn't be able to at all, and really, she wouldn't be able to blame him; it'd be like losing another child. 'I'm an idiot, but I have to. Gods help us if that cylon tries anything.' She closed her eyes and spoke up against her better judgement before they were out of earshot. "Wait."


End file.
